Certification and unique electronic seals for online entities

Abstract

The invention provides techniques for issuing electronic seals of certification to online entities, such as online merchants, in a manner that prevents non-certified parties from easily stealing or otherwise misusing the seals. A central seal issuer verifies the credentials, policies or business practices of each merchant and issues a corresponding seal of certification. For each merchant, the seal issuer generates a unique media object representing an electronic seal. The media object includes an encrypted watermark containing an expiration date. The media objects are stored on a seal server such that the merchants can dynamically retrieve and display the electronic seals when accessed by a user. The seal issuer can easily revoke or update the centrally stored seals.

1 . A method comprising: 
 receiving agreements to participate in online dispute resolution from plurality of online entities; and    generating corresponding media objects for each of the online entities based on receipt of the agreements, wherein each of the media objects includes media to present a unique seal of certification for each of the entities.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing data reflecting the agreements for each of the online entities in a database, 
 wherein generating corresponding media objects comprises generating corresponding media objects for each of the online entities based on the data stored in the database.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the media objects comprise images and the entities comprises online merchants.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating corresponding media objects comprises selectively displaying the media objects.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising communicating at least one of the media objects via an electronic mail message.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating corresponding media objects comprises selectively displaying the media objects within an online marketplace  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising verifying that the participants comply with security requirements.